Child welfare: protecting children's interests April 30
Hour 1 The shocking death of 6-year-old Khalil Wimes, who was allegedly starved and beaten to death by his parents, has outraged and confused many Philadelphians. Why was this young boy removed from a safe foster home and [...]

Science Ink April 30
Hour 2 When you think about tattoos, what comes to mind — snakes, hearts, flowers, Celtic knots, mermaids, or the name of a true love? Well, what if that true love is science?  It turns out a lot [...]

Center City Jazz with Ernest Stuart & Rhenda Fearrington April 27
Hour 1 How do you pull off a music festival with the historically under-performing money making genre that is jazz? “Patience,” says Center City Jazz Festival organizer and South Jersey native ERNEST STUART. The trombonist and music producer [...]

Cullen Murphy on The Inquisition & its modern legacy April 27
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Vanity Fair editor-at-large CULLEN MURPHY believes there is nothing new under the sun about interrogation. He says ingredients for a modern day inquisition are here today as bureaucracies, information technology, and surveillance keep expanding; and [...]

Garbology: a look at America's trash habit April 26
Hour 1 Americans make a lot of trash, more than any other country in the world. In fact, each of us produces around 7.1 pounds of garbage a day, or roughly 102 tons in a lifetime. And trash [...]

How a bond between brothers led to 'Dr. Death' April 26
Hour 2 March 18, 1997 began like any normal day in the working class suburb of Warminster in southeastern Pennsylvania. But JIMMY MILEY didn’t take his older brother Buddy to the scheduled eye doctor appointment. Instead, Jimmy and [...]

Game on: Handicapping the race for the vice presidency April 25
Hour 1 Now that Mitt Romney has the Republican nomination in the bag, all eyes and ears have turned to speculation about his vice-presidential pick. Within the Romney camp, the vetting has begun.  Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida [...]

The science of exercise April 25
Hour 2 What do you do for exercise? Go for a run or a walk with the dog?  How about a game of tennis or golf?  Maybe you garden, do yoga or a Zumba class?  Most of us [...]

Pulitzer Prize winner Sara Ganim & her editor Mike Feeley; then the Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge April 24
Hour 1 In announcing its award for local reporting last week, the Pulitzer Prize committee praised crime reporter SARA GANIM and her colleagues at the Patriot-News of Harrisburg for “courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State [...]

E.O. Wilson's provocative evolution theory, 'The Social Conquest of Earth' April 24
Hour 2 In his controversial new book, “The Social Conquest of Earth,” which the acclaimed biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author presents as the capstone to his legendary career, EDWARD O. WILSON firmly and fundamentally breaks with a theory [...]

Presidential politics and Pennsylvania April 23
Hour 1 Since Mitt Romney has the Republican Party’s presidential nomination all but sewed up, tomorrow's Pennsylvania primary isn’t as important as it was before Rick Santorum's withdrawal from the race.  But with 20 electoral votes up for [...]

Philadelphia's new City Council President Darrell Clarke April 23
Hour 2 Fifth District Councilman DARRELL CLARKE became Philadelphia City Council President on January 2nd, succeeding the retired Council staple Anna Verna and before her, his own political mentor, John Street. Clarke’s Fifth District includes swaths of booming [...]

Triggered: A first-person memoir of OCD April 20
Hour 1 You don’t want to know what writer FLETCHER WORTMANN is thinking. For many of his 25 years he was consumed by thoughts of intrusive, taboo, abhorrent acts so perverse he became suicidal out of his concern [...]

Fun family getaways in NJ, PA & DE April 20
Hour 2 With summer approaching and gas prices averaging around $4 a gallon, a lot of families are rethinking the long vacation road trip or one that involves expensive airfare. So how about taking a few smaller trips [...]

The social media battleground of today's politics April 19
Hour 1 Days before Pennsylvania’s primary, we step back and check our cell phones for the latest update on how political campaigns are using social media, technology and the “four screens” many of us see every day to [...]

How the Universe Began April 19
Hour 2 Who hasn’t looked up at the dark, night sky and marveled at the enormity of the universe and wondered about those very first moments when it was all began. Astronomer CHRIS IMPEY has spent his career [...]

Matching economic priorities with national priorities April 18
Hour 1 The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has long been used to measure the health of our economy – whether it is growing or retracting – as it tells us the value of the goods and services we [...]

The Practicing Mind April 18
As a full-time professional piano tech for over 25 years, our guest THOMAS M. STERNER sat down and repeated a task at least 88 times on a grand piano, and each piano has a potential 34 different adjustments [...]

Philly's crumbling vacant buildings, & what to do about them April 17
Hour 1 Last week’s fire at the former Bucks Hosiery factory in Kensington killed two firefighters and cast a spotlight on a longterm problem confronting Philadelphia: the economic opportunities, challenges and physical dangers presented by its many old [...]

NPR's Planet Money on U.S. tax code: Both fair & efficient? April 17
Hour 2 Taxpayers get more time to file this year, by today, April 17th, two days after from the annual, dreaded April 15th. We’ll talk to NPR’s Planet Money reporters JACOB GOLDSTEIN and ROBERT SMITH, to help walk [...]

The primary elsewhere in PA: The views from Erie, NePA & Pittsburgh April 16
Hour 1 With a week left before Pennsylvania voters can choose candidates in the Republican and Democratic primary elections, we take stock of how a few select campaigns have played out in other parts of the commonwealth. We’ll [...]

Sexual assaults on college campuses April 16
It is estimated that  20 to 25 percent of women will be the victim of a completed or attempted rape while in college, but fewer than 5 percent of these cases go reported. High profile cases at Penn [...]

Civil War scholar Harold Holzer on the Emancipation Proclamation April 13
Hour 1 Historian HAROLD HOLZER comes in to help us examine the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Holzer, author of 42 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, looks at the political and social historical context of this [...]

Philly rock'n'roll pioneer legend Charlie Gracie April 13
Hour 2 South Philadelphia native CHARLIE GRACIE comes in to discuss what it’s like making a rock and roll record over 50 years after his 1957 hit, “Butterfly.” The first major artist on Philadelphia’s Cameo Parkway label, Gracie [...]

Medical specialists warn of overtesting April 12
Hour 1 Nine physician specialty societies are banning together with leading consumer groups to draw attention to the over-use of certain medical tests and procedures.  The “Choosing Wisely” initiative, launched by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation [...]

Jamming with the Philly Roller Girls April 12
Hour 2 Roller derby, specifically women’s flat-track roller derby, is a fun and serious sport growing in popularity, especially in U.S. cities and definitely here in Philadelphia, where the Philly Roller Girls is the local league affiliated with [...]

Suspended Santorum; then, the 'Buffett Rule,' politics & the economyt April 11
Hour 1 Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign yesterday, one week before Pennsylvania's primary election. We'll check in with NPR National Political Correspondent DON GONYEA, who covered the announcement in Gettysburg yesterday, about the announcement and [...]

Rita Moreno's 'Life from Zero to Sixty Plus Twenty' April 11
Hour 2 Still singing and inspiring, Broadway legend and Latina trailblazer RITA MORENO joins Marty in studio for a retrospective of her much-honored life and career. The artist who originated the role of Anita in the film version [...]

The untapped power of swing voters; then, deadly fire in Philly April 10
Hour 1 Forty percent of the American electorate is made up of independent voters, and their ideologies are in the middle of the political spectrum, according to journalist LINDA KILLIAN. These significant voters, who can decide national elections, [...]

Academy of Natural Sciences turns 200 April 10
Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences is celebrating its 200th birthday this year.  The renowned Academy is the oldest natural history museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its renowned collection of 18 million plants and animals includes dinosaur fossils collected [...]

Strip searches: Debating the recent Supreme Court ruling April 9
Hour 1 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that anyone arrested can be subjected to a strip search even if they’re being held for a minor offense. That’s what happened to plaintiff Albert Florence, who was wrongly [...]

Deadline artist Tony Auth on political cartoons & more April 9
Hour 2 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist TONY AUTH is joining WHYY and NewsWorks. Auth left The Philadelphia Inquirer last month after more than 40 years, and now embarks on new adventures and experiments in digital story-telling, doing new [...]

The Race to the South Pole: Roald Amundsen vs. Robert Falcon Scott April 6
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] Just over a hundred years ago, Roald Amundsen and four companions were the first human beings to stand at the South Pole. Using skis and dog sleds they beat Robert Falcon Scott’s British expedition by [...]

A Breeze of Hope & justice for sexual abuse survivors April 6
BRISA DE ANGULO is a student at Rutgers School of Law-Camden and a co-founder of  Centro Una Brisa De Esperanza (CUBE), or A Breeze of Hope Center — the only place in Bolivia specializing in providing comprehensive assistance [...]

Cuba, the Pope and U.S. relations April 5
Hour 1 Last week, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Cuba, met with Fidel and Raul Castro, and held a papal mass in Havana's Revolution Square. Some in the Cuban-American community are hopeful that this papal visit, the first [...]

Cutting-edge science & challenges of premature babies April 5
Hour 2 The science and stories of premature babies, viable ever-earlier thanks to advances in medicine and technology but with medical challenges testing the limits of neonatology. Dr. ADAM WOLFBERG knows about these challenges intimately – he’s the [...]

Delaware Valley's response to the rising rates of autism April 4
Hour 1 A new estimate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the rates for autism in American children is rising ever faster. Now, about one in 88 children in the United States has autism or a [...]

When sibling rivalry follows us into adulthood April 4
Hour 2 For most of us, the bickering and battling with our brothers and sisters when we were children become amusing pieces of our family history. But for others, unresolved hurts and jealousies accompany us into adulthood and [...]

David Corn on 'Showdown' between Obama White House & House Republicans April 3
Hour 1 Mother Jones Washington Bureau chief DAVID CORN has a new book, "Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party," covering the White House struggle against House Republicans from [...]

The Pillsbury Bake-Off & what it takes to win a cooking contest April 3
Hour 2 Last week, the Pillsbury Bake-Off awarded $1 million to a local woman, Devon's CHRISTINA VERRELLI, whose pumpkin ravioli dessert with salted caramel whipped cream topping earned the 44-year-old contest's grand prize.  We'll talk to Christina about [...]

Pennsylvania's public welfare on the chopping block April 2
Hour 1 Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has proposed $629 million in cuts to the Department of Public Welfare's budget, including $319 million in General Assistance ($150 M for cash; $169 M for health care); $168 million to human [...]

Scott Weidensaul on 'The First Frontier' April 2
Hour 2 Author and Pulitzer Prize finalist SCOTT WEIDENSAUL discusses his new book, "The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery and Endurance in Early America." Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including the critically [...]